Julio Claudians

• Positive Features of the Republic Before Augustus

  • Stood for the REMOVAL OF TYRANTS
  • The Poor were sort of heard (in the Council of the Plebs)
  • Laws were harder to pass
  • First form of Democratic Government
  • Rome was made a larger power
• Negative Features of the Republic Before Augustus

  • The Senate were rich so the Republic favoured them
  • Not everyone was allowed to vote and no one was able to vote in secret
  • They won more wars, but soldiers also had to go to more wars
  • Country was built off of rival wealthy families
• Julius Caesar


  • Had Power as a MILITARY LEADER (and soon Consul - a leader of the Senate)
  • Formed the FIRST TRIUMPHRAT (Him, Pompey, and Crassus)
  • Leaving Rome to deal with a revolt weakened his political power while Pompey succeeded in gaining more influence so tension is rising
  • The Senate doesn't like him anymore so they try to put him on trial
  • He declares a civil war and the triumphrat dissolves because Pompey and Crassus don't want to defend him
  • When hunting Pompey down in Egypt he had an affair with Cleopatra
  • Upon winning the civil war, Caesar is declared DICTATOR FOR LIFE
  • Then he was stabbed which caused 13 more years of civil war
• Octavian


  • Octavian is pre-Imperial Augustus, he got the name Augustus as a part of his rank
  • To avenge the death of Julius Caesar, Octavian formed a triumphrat with Mark Anthony and Lepidus (a simplification of a lot of events)
  • There was a power struggle between Octavian and Mark Antony so when the Senate didn't like Mark Antony, Octavian joined forces with them
  • This lead to the BATTLE OF ACTIUM which ended with Mark Antony running away with Cleopatra to kill themselves
  • This ended civil war in Rome and presented Octavian as a bringer of peace - PAX ROMANA
• How Octavian got away with it

  1. Propaganda

  2. He presented Julius Caesar as a God and that gave him a right to rule because he also had his name

  3. Seizing control would be bad because the people hated tyrants and he didn't want to be stabbed like Caesar

  4. He used propaganda like coins, poems, monuments etc to make himself look like the saviour of the people and presented the victory at Actium in this way also

  5. Monuments to celebrate this victory praised the Gods not him so he could remain modest

  6. He went on to use many more military successes to prove himself as a leader
• Auctoritas


  "influence", that is the ability of an individual to affect socio- political circumstances without the need for specific official power
• Potestas

  Official political power, typically held by senators occupying positions on the CURSUS HONORUM (the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire)
• First Settlement (27 BCE)

  1. Augustus renounced all of his powers to the Senate to preserve the Republic but he still had a lot of Auctoritas so it was just a matter of finding a legitimate claim to power

  2. Augustus takes a 10 year responsibility for the IMPERIAL PROVINCES though eg Gaul and Egypt

  3. He also became Princeps ("first in order")

  4. This is where his name changed to Augustus in 27 BCE which was a stamp of religious authority but not too suggestive of being a tyrant

  5. Under no circumstances did he want to be interpreted as a tyrant like Julius Caesar
• Second Settlement (23 BCE)


  1. Augustus was no longer a consul but still kept pretty much all of the benefits

  2. From this he was able to: Propose laws whenever he wanted, Veto laws, Pardon any citizen

  3. He essentially took the role of Leader of the Senate for a temporary time, over and over

  4. The Senate couldn't really do anything about it because Augustus was also leader of many other parts of the Republic eg the Military and Religion because he had auctoritas
• Restoration of Traditional Values

  1. Many people thought that Rome had lost its traditional values so Augustus passed laws to bring them back - MORAL REFORMS

  2. He made marriage laws about how divorce had to happen, added age limits to marriage, gave penalties for being unmarried, and tried to require all Romans to have three children

  3. Why? Partly to 'restore traditional values' but mostly to increase population (and therefore army) now that Rome was prosperous

  4. Did this work? Not really because he broke nearly every one of these laws

  5. These laws were relaxed in 9 BCE

  6. Alongside these things Augustus also brought back the census and encouraged more traditional clothing

  7. While most of what he did didn't work, the census did find that Rome was doing well and he created a golden age for the arts

  8. Important note: he burned books about what Rome was like before him
• Religion and Augustus


  1. Propaganda presented Augustus as a ruler with God given right and as someone who should be worshipped

  2. So started the IMPERIAL CULT

  3. This was especially comforting because the Roman people believed they'd been abandoned by the Gods during the years of turmoil

  4. He made a point of restoring abandoned temples and had 7 priesthoods

  5. However he also respected long standing religions

  6. Religion was very important to him because it was a part of what controlled the Republic and meant he had power in another part of politics
• Suetonius

  • Criticises the Emperors and disagrees with hereditary succession
  • Offers an alternate view to the upper class
  • Had access to Imperial Archives
  • Biassed because he didn't like the Emperors
  • Relied on gossip
  • Wanted to prove that hereditary succession wasn't a good idea
• Dio


  • Talks quite a lot about the Gods and Augustus' link to them through divine right
  • Had a personal connection to the Emperors
  • Wrote in a more balanced way
  • Wide view due to many careers
  • Owed his career to Emperors
  • Liked the Republic a lot
  • Added rhetoric
• Velleius

  • Describes the illusion of the Republic and how Augustus restored traditional values
  • Understand the wider context
  • Eyewitness to many events
  • Owed Augustus and Tiberius his career
  • Lack of detail
• Horace


  • Augustus was a divine leader who restored peace to the Republic and also how terrible Cleopatra was
  • Was likely writing propaganda for Augustus
• Ovid


  • Believes that the Emporers are literally destroying everything
  • Disagreed very strongly with Augustus' marriage laws and was exiled
• Virgil


  • Presents Augustus as a divine leader
  • Commissioned by Augustus
• Res Gestae


  • Augustus gave power back to the people (and was also super cool)
  • Literally written by Augustus to celebrate himself
• Coins


  • Augustus is great leader and Restored the Republic
  • Common tool for propaganda